Sandusky very well may have a psychological disorder, but it is pedophilia, not histrionic personality. The grooming behaviors that they discussed in the article are textbook pedo. When the situation first came out I read the affidavit. Its not surprising to me that we haven't heard about more victims. I can imagine that he did this for years and years prior to being caught, but I believe the statistics are something like one of every 10 victims actually come forward, and often there are many other kids who were subjected to grooming without any actual physical sexual abuse happening. He may have have hundreds of actual victims out there.
It's like dating almost. When you first go on a date with someone, you don't immediately have sex. Well, maybe Lax does, but most do not. You hold hands, you kiss, and you do a little touching… Then on the next date you do the same - maybe a little further, maybe a little longer… eventually you lead up to something like mutual masturbation, and then you have sex. That's exactly what grooming behaviors are. Except they are with someone inappropriate. You are gradually desensitizing the person to different levels of abuse.
Histrionic people are attention whores. They play both ends against the metal, they use sex and drama to get what they want, and 99% of them are women. The behaviors with histrionic personality type are extremely feminine, very typical of women. If you really look at the diagnostic criteria for histrionic, it looks like an extreme version of every woman you have ever known.
I would suspect that he is claiming a personality disorder because those cannot be treated. Your personality is what it is, the only thing you can do is work on behavior triggers and modification. It is hard-wired. I am guessing that they have gone with this line of defense because if he can be found to truly have a personality disorder, then they can argue that it is his biology and he is not responsible for his actions.
Anyway. That's just my two cents. Sorry for the psychology lesson
